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My name is Tony and I live in Woodinville, Washington. I've lived in the northwest
for around 20 years and what I really like to do is go hiking and do stuff outside and
when I can I like to travel and be as active as possible. The way I found out I had A Fib
was very sudden and it was a little bit shocking. I was out for my normal run. Suddenly I was
completely out of breath and I had to put my hands on my knees. I was gasping for air.
I knew something was wrong but I thought I hadn't hydrated properly or something. So
I gave it a couple of days and I tried again and the same thing happened. So I went to
the emergency room and they told me I had AF. After that it was see doctors and try
to find out what the treatment options are and do as much research as possible. What
was really scary about it was that I felt like I wasn't going to be able to do the
things I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wasn't going to be able to hike. I wasn't
going to be able to run. I wasn't going to be able to be active. To have that happen
all of a sudden is a little bit life-altering or potentially life-altering. So I contacted
somebody who is a leader in the field of treating atrial fibrillation back in Michigan. He suggested
that I consider coming to Swedish hospital where he had high confidence I would get the
treatment I needed. And my own research had shown that Swedish had a state-of-the-art
EP Lab, electrophysiology lab for treating these types of arrhythmias. When I came to
see my doctor here at Swedish for the first time I was please and relieved. He was extremely
compassionate and he was interested. He told me exactly what my options were and gave me
the sense that whatever options I took that he would be there to make sure I got the best
treatment possible. I was expecting the whole thing to be fairly traumatic, the procedure
itself to be fairly traumatic. But it wasn't. The whole procedure was actually very amazing.
One of the aspects of the procedure was that they took a 3-D image of my heart using a
CAT SCAN. And then when I went into the lab to actually have the procedure done, they
took that 3-D image from the CAT SCAN and they overlaid it on an electrical mapping
system so the doctor had a 3-D visual image of my heart and he could rotate that in three
dimensions. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to come here to have that done because
they had that very sophisticated equipment which really increases dramatically the probability
of success of the procedure. When I came out of the sedation what I noticed right away
is there was a cardiac monitor next to me and my heart beat was extremely regular. And
that was a great feeling because I could tell that I didn't have atrial fibrillation.
Now that I don't have A Fib anymore I'm looking forward to doing all the things I
love to do. My experience with Swedish was really really good. I felt like I was very
well taken care of from the moment I walked in the door to be admitted for the procedure
until the time they released me and continuing with all the follow ups that I've had.